Randy, I know John Saccomani, he is an elder near my home.
I Hate Jehovah's Witnesses, and I Eat Small Children for Breakfast
by Dogpatch 58 Replies latest jw friends
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Iamallcool
He is on facebook, He has a very open facebook including his pics so you will know what he looks like today.
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Dogpatch
The El Porto surfer gang (El Porto is actually where I live; it was annexed into Manhattan Beach when I moved here from Bethel.) It is a more Bohemian group, we rarely say we live in Manhattan Beach, sounds too snooty. Two of my 4 roommates are in this picture...guy in the checkered shirt (middle) is a public defender (licensed attorney) in the State of Calif., works on homicide cases in Inglewood and Compton area. He's extremely intelligent and quite impressive in court, loves to see cops get shut down for being bullies. His whole family is back in Florida and all his brothers and his dad work for the DEA. He does his best to get the dumb 16 year-olds off that do dumb things and very bad things by mistake, because the LAPD is like a cult in its own right. They are RUTHLESS. They miss a proper procedure, the accused walks and he saves them from life imprisonment. But of course, some do go to jail for life and deserve it.
The second from the right (green plaid) is one of two brothers that are my roommates, both from Arkansas. Rednecks who have quite an extensive gun collection, weighs 260 pounds and knows karate, as does his brother. He's not shown, his hair is "too messed up" and he's getting ready to do commercials. :-))
Robert Sullivan is upstairs eating his health food crap.
You don't mess with this crowd. Our neighborhood is practically a gang in itself!We know everything that goes on in this tiny corner of Manhattan Beach. Woe to the stranger who comes in to town causing trouble, you'll get the sh%^& beat out of you.
Obviously I'm too old for that noise.
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GLTirebiter
OK, on a lighter note, I just got back from my bike ride at sunset, went to the end of Hermosa Beach back to the end of Manhattan.
El Porto to the Portofino--it's been a long time since I've ridden the Strand. Do the HB bike police still run their speed trap at the Strand and Pier Ave?
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Dogpatch
Hi GLT,
Hola! When did you live around here?
None of the cops are on bicycles. I don't remember seeing that. They have huge motorcycles that cruise down the bike path/Strand quietly at night like the tanks did in WWII. During the day, in Hermosa, they keep squad cars parked all around the Hermosa and Manhattan piers, as there are many bars and not infrequently fights break out.The area is a bit dangerous for a cop on a bike most of the time. They have huge videocameras on all the squad cars.
There not too many speed traps around here, but there are a couple of drunk driving traps near the bars at night. Not too easy to go fast in such a dense area.
Redondo Beach is a different story. Lots of Asian gangs and such come down to cause trouble, but I rarely go down that far anymore on my bike, so I am not aware of how the cops work there.
The cops don't have much to do in MB, so if anything serious happens, 10 squad cars are on the spot in a couple of minutes. It can be frightening! If someone gets injured on the bike path or the beach, 2 lifeguard trucks, fire ambulances and sometimes the big fire trucks are there within minutes.
There have been a couple of incidents lately where the lifeguards are in a rush on the sand and have actually run people over who are sunbathing! Doesn't usually kill them though. But I'm sure they are in the hospital for awhile.
Randy
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Dogpatch
Iamallcool, where is his Facebook page? He was a funny guy, one of my MAN operators on 3-6. I trained him for awhile how to run a press.
Randy
My clandestine visit back to Bethel in 1985... talking to Schroeder :-))
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Iamallcool
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000759136530
He now owns auto body repair shop.
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clarity
Hi Randy, love to hear about your experiences.
Freeminds was one of the first sites I hit on when escaping the wt.
I got you phone # from Marilyn (?) and we had a little chat, which helped a lot. thanx
Now about this ...............................
") NO JW ever said a truly hurtful thing to me, EVER. I love Jehovah's Witnesses, but their leaders belong in jail as far as I'm concerned. Sorry, I know too many of their dirty secrets. Someday I will tell the REAL dirt behind their personal lives. Sick, twisted stuff. But hey, someone has to aggravate me enough to do that. Let sleeping DOGS lie. I don't want negative thoughts ruining my day any more than you do. Besides, it's just too disgusting to tell. A lot of stuff Ray Franz didn't even know about."
Awww come on Randy.........puleeze! pretty please
Btw........glad you are feeling better.
clarity
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OnTheWayOut
Randy, everyone has different stories and different reactions to various degrees to their experiences with Watchtower.
I am glad you were not burned before leaving and I can relate. I was not burned by any one experience, although I felt overall burned by the organization. I still try to give the benefit of the doubt when haters attribute things to JW's and sometimes even extend the benefit of the doubt to Watchtower itself. SOMETIMES.
Not a single JW did anything to intentionally hurt me. I am nobody to the corporation. YET I am pissed off at Watchtower. It guided my life down the wrong path and holds some precious people hostage. I have learned to turn every bit of bitterness about JW stuff away from the individuals and toward the organization.
But hey, we do truly have to recognize the good in individual people and the victimization of JW's and try to see past any bitterness. Thanks for your positive thoughts.
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Dogpatch
Hi Clarity,
I will tell some more harmless but funny anecdotes in a couple of days, I'm burned out from working. :-))
OntheWayOut,
I am like an empath in that I feel what about 60% or more of people I'm around are internally feeling. It depends on if they hide their feelings intentionally. That's why I feel and listen and sometimes touch (handshake) to know what the person really is on the inside. That is why I am successful at exit-counseling... I don't put much stock in what they say but by what I feel that they are not aware of at first. When they actually become aware that I am completely on their wavelength, their entire guard mechanism releases their fear and they see I am for real. They often go further and ask about what the Bible teaches (I never try to suggest any form of religion on my own; they must ask me. It's very unprofessional and a cheap trick to try and convert them to something else when they are in such a vulnerable moment. Besides, why let someone else tell you what is right or wrong, are you so afraid you are a bad judge? Do you not even know your inner soul?
But with Bible-based cults, on the third day and we are good friends by then (and I am completely worn out by their negative vibes), they inevitably start asking me what I believe about the Bible. I just tell them my own story, and say take it for what it's worth. I tell them to read Romans and Galatians. Oh Lord, I can see it coming then. Inevitably, I feel a rush of what would be described by a born-again Christian as the Holy Spirit being suddenly present, like the Shekinah of old. It becomes so overwhelming that we both get very vulnerable and a great spirit of peace starts to open their eyes, and in a mere few minutes they ask me to pray with them. I know it's not my doing, because I actually dread it. But I dare not grieve the Spirit. I'm happy that they are now "demon-free," but I take their feelings of the last three days home with me.... their fears, their initial hatred of me as the devil or something, the unkind words, etc. and I'm a basket case for about 3 days, then it finally subsides and my roommates can stand me again. (None of them are religious). I have to go hang out on the beach and have a Margarita, and then I'm fine from then on. :-))
It's probably just my emotional makeup, because I've been that way all my life. I can walk into a room and within 10 minutes tell you a great deal about what 80% of complete strangers are feeling (not thinking). That's why before I became a JW I liked to be alone and talk to God, to take my sensitivity and empathy towards others away, as I am quite happy on my own, and I don't want the feelings of others to ruin my inner peace. I used to do the ritual of communion with the Lord in my room in Vegas alone. My parents didnt even know. But I hdn't been to a church since I was 13 (Schuller's church).
Self-preservation. That's why I quit exit-counseling, public speaking, and going to church - haven't been in a church in 14 years. Haven't worn a suit since I left Bethel 30 years ago!! I hate wearing shoes.
In a group of ex-cult members, it's the same story. I go out to visit Tory Magoo and her ex-Scientology group, and they are even way more %^^&* up! Not Tory, she is a great and wonderful woman, who worked for Hubbard and Miscavige for like 30 years, even being on the disinformation desk. You have to see her Youtube channel.
My pain is not about beliefs or theological mind farts, but about the loud cacophony of pain and suffering, usually oblivious to others.
That's why I don't go to ex-JW meetings, church or any religious places anymore... it's physical and emotional torture to me because so many are really in bad shape. It is much easier on the Internet, as I get about 20% of the misery because I am not physically next to them and feeling them... just the stories make me sad or mad. That's why I write against the Watchtower... not because of doctrine or false prophecy or any of that. It's because I have over and over for 30+ years (INCLUDING all the time I was an elder, especially going out to other congregations where the other elders and the R&F tell me their secrets. I want to go screaming out and have a Margarita to dull the pain I feel from them. Hell, I grew up in a lot of pain myself emotionally, until I became 15 and became a real man and on my own, and took responsibility for all my actions and learned the tricks of self-survival.
The exception is people like Paul and his wife Sam, Dagney, and many others (especially out here in laid-back Cali) where none of them take themselves too serious and are long past the pain, if they had any to begin with. Paul (Besty on this board) is especially free of all the religious nonsense and a very sharp thinker. But being in a group of ex-JWs is very hard for me. I rarely entertain JWs or ex-JWS at my house or anywhere else. It's self-preservation from another bout of misery I can't shut off. Many think I'm just snooty. I've never been snooty (well, maybe my first three years at Bethel).
Some Christians think it's because I don't want to share my real beliefs or something, but hey, when have I ever been shy or intimidated after going through all that nonsense at Bethel? I can easily speak to a secular crowd with no notes and no fear, everything just rolls out of my mouth spontaneously. As an elder I never ONCE gave a manuscript talk, can't do it. It has to be me. Instead I had a series of three slide shows I took to each congregation within a 200-mile radius of Brooklyn as a Bethel elder used to do. They taught me to be outgoing at least.
My beliefs are honestly neither evangelical OR fundamentalistic (to be honest I would be more like a Catholic than a Protestant, minus the pope and the ecclesiastical people), because they just don't invent their religiohn out of thin air (sola scritura). Catholicism, Lutherans, and Greek Orthodox even more so, they are REAL people most often. Their faith has substance, meaning, and warmth to it. That is evident by the Catholic churches' outreaches that shame the Watchtower to pieces, who are extremely selfish and tight. They take the pope and many other things with a grain of salt. :-))
But the worship and the rituals are lifegiving. It lifts you up and out of the banal life. That's why contrary to most ex-JWs, who scorn those faiths, I see people like Tom and Gloria Cabeen, the Sanchezs, Len and Marjorie Chretien, and all the people that I always knew were compassionate, giving and real, took a brief stint in Protestantism but converted to Catholicism. I think that's what touched Ann Rice for a few years, before she completely rejected the church and went back to writing about vampires. They were more real and honest than many Christians! Maybe Prince will someday see the same light. I once offered his publicist to exit-counsel him for free (no response). Same with Michael Jackson (someone actually sent him one of my books). Poor dude, what a mess he was. Yet such great talent.
Prince, never got into his stuff, too effeminent for me. But he is very talented nevertheless. What a shame to see him become a Watchtower poodle (shades of Tony Blair). It goes against everything deep in his soul... it MUST. But pain drove him to religion, as it does most people. He just picked a bad one.
That's what Anton Levey, the former head of the First Church of Satan in San Francisco did also (rituals that empowered him and others)! And he didn't even believe in Satan, God or demons. I have a book on his rituals. But it's simply crass hedonism and control freak stuff.
I call myself a naturalist Christian - I only believe in the Spirit of Christ. But don't take me to task on the nonsense of creation myths or devils or whatever, I want to run away from dealing with things that cannot be substantiated by my 5 senses. Because if you manage to get me going in an argument on theology, I can generally shred your myths to pieces, and I don't really like to do that, people's fun or needy worldviews get busted and I hate destroying people's beliefs unless they are hurting others by them, like the Governing Body or elders. That's why I could not stand You Know (Robert King) as he hurt so many people inside by his cruel, practically evil nature on H2O and JWD. I have a great imagination, but have no room for bad or silly imaginations, crazy conspiracy theories, or whatever. I grew up on a ranch... animals were more fun to be with (except poodles, which I despise because they are too clever and can read my feelings and almost my thoughts, very improper for a dog to get into MY mind. :-))
I love dogs otherwise, having had about 12 in my life. Thus Dogpatch (actually named after Lil' Abner's cartoons).
but as the years gone by I can't handle the 2-3 day "demon posession" period of absorbing their pain and hurt. I cry with them... even though I never went through anything like that myself getting out, it was a breeze and I went surfing the day I sent in my letter. :-))
The closest equivalent to understanding this is like doing an exorcism (don't believe in it) but it is a transfer of all their gut feelings to mine, and I can't shut it off unfortunately.